Ang Rita Sherpa with certificates of the Guinness Book of Records

Ang Rita Sherpa‘s Everest record could be one for eternity. The legendary climber from Nepal, who the locals reverently call “Snow Leopard”, is now 70 years old. No other climber has scaled the highest mountain on earth as often without bottled oxygen as Ang Rita did in the 1980s and 90s. “His record of nine will probably stand for a long time since current climbing Sherpas are required to use O2 by their companies,” Richard Salisbury from the “Himalayan Database” writes to me.

Not ten times

Tents on Everest South Col

Recently I had reported about the remarkable feat of the Pakistani climber Fazal Ali, who last summer had been the first to stand on the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, without bottled oxygen for the third time. I remembered Ang Rita, the Everest record holder. I had in mind that he had climbed to the summit ten times without breathing mask. So it is written in newspaper and internet articles and in books, e.g. the Guinness Book of Records. He himself has always mentioned this number too. Strictly speaking, however, it is not correct, as I discovered during my research in the “Himalayan Database” and as Richard Salisbury confirmed to me.

Bottled oxygen while sleeping on the South Col

Ang Rita has indeed ascended ten times without bottled oxygen to the highest point on earth at 8,850 meters, but during his first successful ascent in May 1983 he used a breathing mask to sleep in Camp 4 both before and after the summit push. The US climber David Breashears pointed this out at the time. According to Breashears, he had been in the same tent with Ang Rita on the South Col in spring 1983 and they had shared a Y-connection from the same oxygen bottle.

Huge respect for Ang Rita

On the summit

Breashears, who scaled Everest five times with bottled oxygen during his career, stressed to the legendary Himalayan chronicler Elizabeth Hawley (1923-2018) that he did not want to diminish Ang Rita’s outstanding performance. After all, the Sherpa had climbed to the highest point without bottled oxygen on the summit day of 1983. “I can’t think of a stronger climbing companion or a Sherpa for whom I have more respect than Ang Rita,” Breashears wrote. On his following nine successful Everest climbs, the legendary Sherpa forewent bottled oxygen – also when sleeping at great heights.

19 summit successes on eight-thousanders

Ang Rita was born in 1948 in Yilajung, a small village in Khumbu in eastern Nepal. As a child he tended Yaks. At the age of 15, the Sherpa first worked as a porter on an expedition. Ang Rita scaled his first eight-thousander in 1979: Dhaulagiri. In total, he achieved 19 summit successes on eight-thousanders by the end of his climbing career in 1999: ten times on Everest, four times on Cho Oyu, three times on Dhaulagiri, once on Kangchenjunga and Makalu. He always did it completely without bottled – with one exception: during the aforementioned expedition in 1983.

Aerobic exercises at night at 8,600 meters

Admired and often honored

The “Snow Leopard” set Everest milestones. In 1984, he opened a new route variant via the South Buttress with the Slovaks Zoltan Demjan and Jozef Psotka. During the descent, Psotka fell to his death. On 22 December 1987, Ang Rita succeeded the first and so far only winter ascent of Everest without breathing mask. Along with the Korean Heo Young-ho, who used bottled oxygen, the Sherpa reached the highest point. In bad weather the two climbers were forced to bivouac at 8,600 meters. “We spent the whole night just below the summit,” Ang Rita recalled later, “doing aerobic exercises to keep our body active which is the only way to survive there.”

P.S.: Ang Rita’s two sons also scaled Everest several times – with bottled oxygen: Karsang Namgyal Sherpa (born in 1971) nine times, Chewang Dorje Sherpa (born in 1975) five times. Karsang died in 2012 at Everest Base Camp, apparently as a result of alcohol poisoning.

Alex Txikon during his previous climb to the South Col

“The die is cast,” says Alex Txikon. “There will be only a single summit attack and we will try to climb as we have done so far.” Today the 35-year-old Basque climbed along with the Sherpas Nurbu and Chhepal from Everest Base Camp at 5,250 meters to Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. The other three Sherpas of Alex’ team, Nuri, Pemba and Phurba, want to follow on Saturday. For five days, Txikon and Co. had sat out the bad weather – with squalls of up to 190 km/h in the summit area – in Base Camp. At first, the climbers want to check whether the equipment which they had deposited in Camp 3 at 7,300 meters and in Camp 4 on the South Col at 7,950 meters has been damaged or even blown away and therefore has to be replaced.

Good forecasts

Alex in Everest Base Camp

“It looks as if there will be a good weather window between Tuesday and Saturday with optimal conditions compared to those of the previous days. That would favor a summit attempt,” says Alex. “Maybe all of our options to reach the summit will disappear. But we’ll try everything!”

Everything has to fit

Txikon wants to scale Everest without bottled oxygen. So far, only Ang Rita Sherpa has managed this: on 22 December 1987, at the very first day of the calendrical winter, with exceptionally good and comparatively mild weather. Since 1993 no climber has been on the summit of Everest in the cold season. The great cold in winter normally causes the air pressure in the summit area to fall even further. An ascent without breathing mask is then in the absolute limit of the possible. And really everything has to fit, so that Alex Txikon has a realistic chance to reach the summit and return safely to Everest Base Camp.

P.S.: From Sunday on, I will tear up the slopes of East Tyrol and will, if at all, only blog “sparingly”. So don’t wonder!

Txikon (with a stray dog) in Base Camp

Alex Txikon has set off again. At 4.30 a.m. local time, the Basque and his Sherpa team left Everest Base Camp. Their declared destination today: Camp 2 at 6,400 meters. The last entry of his GPS tracker shows a position above Camp 1 in the “Western Cwm” at 6,216 meters. There has as yet been no confirmation that Alex and Co. have reached Camp 2. The 35-year-old wants to scale Mount Everest without bottled oxygen – a feat that before him only Ang Rita Sherpa had succeeded on 22 December 1987, on the very first day of calendrical winter. The Nepalese was then climbing Everest much earlier in the cold season than Txikon now.

Mini weather window

Will Alex try to reach the top? He should be well recovered after over a week in Base Camp and also quite well acclimatized. Finally, on his previous ascent, which had led him up to an altitude of 7,800 meters on the Lhotse flank, he had already spent one night at about 7,300 meters. If Txikon really wants to reach the highest point at 8,850 meters by now, he has no time to waste.

Mount Everest

For the next days sunny winter weather is predicted, but latest on Sunday, the wind in the summit are is to swell to storm strength. An ascent, even with bottled oxygen,would then be impossible. Previously, however, a mini good weather window with little wind is expected on Saturday. That could workt. On Friday to the South Col, on Saturday to the summit. If the meteorologists are right – and all, really all fits together perfectly. Wait and see, and keep your fingers crossed!

Alex Txikon along with the Sherpas Nurbu, Nuri and Chepal

Taking a breath – this is what Alex Txikon wants to do not only figuratively but also literally. After six days on the mountain, the 35-year-old Basque has descended to the Base Camp at the foot of Mount Everest. “We climbed to 7,800 meters,” Alex tweeted after his return to BC, which is located at about 5,350 meters and where the air is much thicker than in the height just below the South Col. “It’s time to rest,” says Txikon. And, perhaps, to re-plan the tactics too, after his companion Carlos Rubio – as reported – had to abandon the expedition because of a lung inflammation.

Strength management

View down from the Lhotse Face

Alex is an experienced winter mountain climber and knows that he has to manage his strength. After all, he has a very ambitious goal. Never before a climber has reached the summit of Everest in the middle of winter without the use of bottled oxygen. Ang Rita Sherpa – the only climber who has so far reached the highest point without breathing mask in the cold season – had ascended on 22 December 1987, the first day of the calendrical winter. The weather was exceptionally good then. Extreme winter cold usually makes the already low air pressure in the summit area fall even further.

Everest will be measured again

South side of Mount Everest

The exact height of Mount Everest is to be newly surveyed next spring. This was announced by Swarna Subba Rao, head of “Survey of India”. The expedition will begin in one month, said Rao according to the Indian newspaper “The Hindu”. The measurements will reportedly take one month, two more weeks will be needed to evaluate the data. The newspaper “The Times of India” reported that the expedition would set off only in two months. That would coincide with the beginning of the spring season on Everest. Anyway, latest in late May a new height will be published, which also could be the old one.

Shrunk or shifted?

In Nepal and India, the highest mountain on earth is still noted with an altitude of 8,848 meters, in China, since 2005, of 8,844 meters. The GPS measurement of an US expedition in 1999 resulted in an altitude of 8,850 meters. After the devastating earthquake in Nepal in spring 2015 it was assumed that Everest had shrunk by a few centimeters. Chinese surveyors, on the other hand, said that Everest had merely shifted laterally, by three centimeters to the southwest.

Alex Txikon

It is a long and hard way up to the 8850-meter-high summit of Mount Everest – all the more in winter and if you want to do it without bottled oxygen. And Alex Txikon and his teammates are just at the beginning. The Basque, his Spanish companion Carlos Rubio and nine Sherpas have begun to find and fix a route through the Khumbu Icefall. “Honestly, it’s what I’m afraid of climbing Everest, I do not want us to get stuck and we’re equipping it for a month”, Alex writes in his blog: “We are working hard, we have to climb a lot of stairs. In short, we have to equip a labyrinth of ice blocks. The terrain “is technical, difficult and demanding,” says Alex. I sent three questions to Everest Base Camp.

Alex, after your winter success on Nanga Parbat in February 2016 you now tackle Mount Everest. Which challenges do you expect on the highest mountain on earth and how high do you estimate your chance of success?

In the Khumbu Icefall

We will have very few possibilities to reach the summit, as on Nanga Parbat in winter 2014/15 and in 2015/16 when we were successful. So we’ll try Everest, we’ll do our best. From my point of view, it’s a success to reach Camp 2 (at 6,400 meters), because the Khumbu Icefall is not easy for the eleven climbers.

Ang Rita Sherpa has been so far the only man who climbed Everest in winter without bottled oxygen, under unusual good weather conditions on 22 December 1987. What makes you optimistic that you can follow in his foodsteps?

First of all, Ang Rita is one of my heroes because he summited Everest ten times without oxygen. He was one of the most charismatic and talented climbers in Nepal in the 1980s and 90s. Of course he summited in (calendrical) winter, but he ascended only five hours in winter. They reached the Base Camp in October, that’s not the same as when we start here in early January. The conditions are much harder than in 1987. That’s for sure and we know that. I am 35 years old and have enough experience. And I am not alone, I am here with Carlos Rubio and nine Nepali climbers. So we hope to reach Camp 2 with eleven climbers. And then we will see the next step for the next team above Camp 2. We’ll have not to many possibilities. But we have enough experience. I think that we can do it.

Alex Txikon: I think that we can do it

“Difficult and demanding”

You will climb with your countryman Carlos Rubio. Why didn’t you choose a partner who is more experienced on eight-thousanders, especially in winter?

He is a young climber and so motivated. As they formerly did with me, I give him an opportunity and a chance. I am so proud about the new climbing generation in the Spanish and Basque community. That’s the future because step by step, generation by generation, the challenges will be improved, in the Himalyas, in the Alps, in rock climbing. I think the young climbers have the power and the future. From my point of view, of course, I can not say that Carlos has experience in the Himalayas. But he is super strong, a really good climber in the Alpes, the Pyrenees and the Picos de Europa (a mountain range in northern Spain). Especially in the Alpes he did hard ascents. So that’s why Carlos is here with me.

Alex Txikon

I was probably too hasty. One and a half weeks ago I had prophesied a quiet winter time on the highest mountains in the world. Now there will be a spectacular expedition. The Basque Alex Txikon wants to climb Mount Everest in winter, without the use of bottled oxygen. This is consistently reported by Spanish media. The 35-year-old will be accompanied by the internationally still relatively unknown 28-year-old Spanish climber Carlos Rubio, who has hitherto made more headlines as an extreme skier. In addition, the two mountaineers Aitor Barez and Pablo Magister will belong to the team as cameramen.

After Nanga Parbat, the Everest coup?

Txikon wants to leave for Kathmandu on 25 December and arrive in the first week of January in the Base Camp on the Nepali south side of Mount Everest. Five Sherpas are to prepare the route through the Khumbu Icefall for the Spanish team. At the end of last February, Alex Txikon, along with the Italian Simone Moro and the Pakistani Muhammad Ali Sadpara, had succeeded the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat. Now the Basque wants to climb even higher.

Five-star risk

Mount Everest

So far 15 climbers have scaled Mount Everest in the meteorological winter. For weather researchers, the cold season begins on 1 December, while the calendar winter begins with the winter solstice on 21 or 22 December. The Poles Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy reached the summit of Everest on 17 February 1980, succeeding the first winter ascent of an eight-thousander at all. Since the end of 1993 no more climbers have stood on the 8,850-meter-high summit. The only one who climbed the highest mountain on earth so far in winter without breathing mask was Ang Rita Sherpa on 22 December 1987. The weather on that day was unusually good. The great cold in winter normally causes the air pressure in the summit area to fall even further. An ascent without bottled oxygen is then in the absolute limit of the possible. Five-star risk.